Local News

2 Kids Found Dead in Hotel

UPDATE:

SANTA ANA, Calif. - A 42-year-old mother remained jailed on suspicion of killing her 13-year-old son and 10-year-old daughter after police found her apparently suicidal as she crashed her car outside a shopping complex, police said.

Marilyn Edge of Scottsdale, Ariz. was expected to make her first court appearance Tuesday.

Further details, including the names of the children, how they died, and their mother's suspected motive, were not being released, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said Sunday. The children's father lives out-of-state and was not notified of their deaths until Sunday.

Edge was driving a car with Georgia license plates when she crashed into an electrical box outside a shopping complex in Costa Mesa on Saturday morning. Her most recent address was in Arizona, Bertagna said, and it wasn't immediately clear why she had come to Orange County.

After the crash, Edge refused to get out of the car and tried to choke herself with a belt or rope as rescuers worked to free her, he said. Police found propane in Edge's car.

As she was being taken to the hospital, Edge told authorities they could find her children at a hotel in nearby Santa Ana. After officers discovered the bodies, police obtained a search warrant late Saturday for the hotel room and worked overnight on the case, Bertagna said.

"Last night, it was mainly trying to figure out who these people were and dealing with the scene itself," he said.

No weapon had been recovered from the scene, Bertagna said.

It wasn't immediately clear if Edge had an attorney.

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SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) _ Two children were found dead in an Orange County hotel room on Friday after police said an apparently suicidal woman made remarks that led authorities to them, authorities said.

Officers found the children dead in a third-floor room at about 9 a.m. at the Hampton Inn & Suites. Police in nearby Costa Mesa had called to request that Santa Ana officers check on the childrens' welfare, Santa Ana police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said.

The childrens' identities were not immediately released. The cause of death was under investigation but was being treated as homicide, Bertagna said.

About an hour before the discovery, Costa Mesa police were called to the scene of a supermarket parking lot where a woman had crashed her car into protective poles surrounding an electrical box, Costa Mesa Sgt. Tim Starn said.

``It was clear that it was an intentional act,'' Starn said.

As paramedics were preparing to take the injured woman to a hospital, ``she made some statements that indicated a crime might have occurred'' in Santa Ana, Starn said.

The woman's name was not immediately released but she was driving a car with a Georgia license plate, Starn said. Her relation to the children and her condition were not immediately disclosed.